People Can Safely Sleep Out Of Doors For Six Months
Of The Year.
The plains are from 4,000 to 6,000 feet high, and
some of the settled "parks," or mountain valleys, are from 8,000
to 10,000.
The air, besides being much rarefied, is very dry.
The rainfall is far below the average, dews are rare, and fogs
nearly unknown. The sunshine is bright and almost constant, and
three-fourths of the days are cloudless. The milk, beef, and
bread are good. The climate is neither so hot in summer nor so
cold in winter as that of the States, and when the days are hot
the nights are cool. Snow rarely lies on the lower ranges, and
horses and cattle don't require to be either fed or housed during
the winter. Of course the rarefied air quickens respiration.
All this is from hearsay.[8] I am not under favorable
circumstances, either for mind or body, and at present I feel a
singular lassitude and difficulty in taking exercise, but this is
said to be the milder form of the affliction known on higher
altitudes as soroche, or "mountain sickness," and is only
temporary. I am forming a plan for getting farther into the
mountains, and hope that my next letter will be more lively. I
killed a rattlesnake this morning close to the cabin, and have
taken its rattle, which has eleven joints. My life is embittered
by the abundance of these reptiles - rattlesnakes and moccasin
snakes, both deadly, carpet snakes and "green racers," reputed
dangerous, water snakes, tree snakes, and mouse snakes, harmless
but abominable.
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